A recent, brief visit with Tina Simonson Moe rekindled memories of her mom, Ailsa Simonson, and the special relationship we shared. Ailsa was a full-blown Democrat activist in her heyday, probably the strongest party leader Divide County ever produced. She rose to the position of state chairman of Democratic women during the party’s North Dakota zenith, at…

“Try to find the humanity in the people you disagree with.” That’s what I wrote in my Sunday print column this week. The subject, of course, was the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise and three others. In the New York Times today Ross Douthat has some thoughts on why the motivations of James Hodgkinson, the…

North Dakota’s own Josh Duhamel gave an interview ostensibly about his love of baseball, and selection as an ambassador for Major League Baseball’s All Star balloting, but he also had some comments about social media and why he steers clear of politics which were pretty interesting: Fox News: You’ve described having a love/hate relationship with…

E pluribus unum. I’m not a scholar, but I think those are Latin words that translates pretty closely to “One out of many”. At one time it was our national motto, dating back to the constitution when the 13 colonies formed one government out of many. It’s still on the Great Seal, and at one…

Lady Gaga may have found herself a place in the history books for being the Superbowl entertainer who won widespread acclaim for something she didn’t do. In a performance that was fun and entertaining, exactly the halftime show America needed, Gaga didn’t lecture us about politics. There was no preachy machinations. No self-righteous symbolism. Just…

In 2004 the Republican establishment in Pennsylvania backed Arlen Specter for the Republican nomination for the senate because, they said, the more conservative Pat Toomey could not win a general election in Pennsylvania. Pat Toomey is now a senator from Pennsylvania. In 2010 the Republican establishment in Florida backed Charlie Crist for the Republican nomination…

Most people disagree with you. If you care about anything in politics (it doesn’t matter where you are on the ideological spectrum) most people disagree with you. You might be tempted to believe that’s wrong because you have an opinion poll that says most people believe elective abortion should be illegal or most people want…

“Peace on earth” has been a common Christmas pronouncement for as long as Christmas has been celebrated. In two days people all over the world will celebrate the most significant contribution to peace ever made but today I would like to thank the readers of SayAnythingBlog.com for one of their contributions to peace, namely, staying…

Bison football has become such a big deal in North Dakota that the media is now running coverage about how much coverage the football team gets. It’s all very meta. Not that it ever takes much for the Fargo media to descend into an orgy of preening. Everything from the Fargo television show on FX…

Someone has kidnapped Matt Evans and written this column under his name. Evans, you see, is a tireless critic of government. He has no tolerance for politicians who don’t say what they mean. He is ready to throw anyone under the bus the moment they vote contrary to the way they’re supposed to. He likes…